Les Miles resumed his public execution Monday by appearing before the media without any answers about his job status. The whole thing is shameful by LSU.
There are the reports LSU won’t blink over paying $15 million to fire a coach who has won 77 percent of his games. There is the symptom known as Les Fatigue -- a genuine condition in Baton Rouge, no doubt -- that surprisingly reached this point without someone figuring out a better solution to correct LSU’s problems. There’s the ugliness of a prolonged drip-drip-drip of leaks about a coach who won LSU a national title in 2007 and played for another in 2011.
NOLA.com reported on Sunday that LSU boosters are prepared to spend the $15 million necessary to fire Miles and pay his buyout. Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports also reported LSU is willing to buy out Miles with a “staggering” amount. Of course, that $15 million figure could be mitigated in part if Miles signs a contract with another school.
Yes, these are private donations and the money would be paid over many years. It’s still insane and raises questions of who's calling the shots and what this private money buys boosters in the future. It’s as if ex-Auburn trustee Bobby Lowder flew a plane to Baton Rouge and took command of LSU. It’s that insane.
In reality, Miles’ $15 million figure may be closer to $20-$25 million once LSU buys out assistant coaches’ salaries and potentially pays $5 million to buy out Jimbo Fisher from his Florida State contract. This assumes Fisher is even interested. He provided the proverbial no-comment Monday as Miles twists in the wind until his inevitable dismissal.
Right now, the only way firing Miles makes any sense is if LSU lands Fisher, a proven coach and recruiter who could try to tackle the Nick Saban Envy Disease that plagues a faction of LSU boosters. (Note to Fisher: You might want to get out of Tallahassee sooner rather than later before Jimbo Fatigue sets in there. Maybe this is just an LSU problem, but why should any coach risk wearing out his welcome too long?)
If not Fisher, what’s Plan B for LSU? Who is the home-run hire that justifies spending $15 million to get rid of Miles, who has the highest winning percentage by an LSU coach since 1908?
Look, by all means, shoot for the moon. Miles is a grown man and he'll move on with his life just fine. But it’s as if LSU has forgotten its own history and what Miles has achieved, notwithstanding recent struggles. This is a program that historically wins 65 percent of its games; Miles wins 77 percent. From 1962 to 2000, LSU won 10 games in a season just twice and averaged seven wins a year; Miles has won 10 games seven times and so far has never won fewer than eight games in a year.
Let’s put $15 million in perspective, shall we? It’s $4 million more than LSU spent on all of its head coaches in 2014-15. It’s $5 million more than all of LSU’s men’s basketball costs last year. It’s about $6 million more than Auburn paid Gene Chizik after firing him in 2012 and $9 million more than Tommy Tuberville was owed when Auburn forced him out in 2008.
LSU would truly enter rare air if it pays $15 million to fire Miles. We’re talking Charlie Weis territory. Notre Dame’s buyout of Weis after firing him in 2009 could reportedly rise to almost $19 million.
Wake up the echoes, LSU.
There is no doubt LSU hasn’t been at the same level in recent years. Everything seemed to change when Miles’ 13-0 team of 2011 got embarrassed in a 21-0 loss to Alabama and Saban at the BCS Championship Game. Miles has lost five straight games to Saban, the ex-LSU coach who is still torturing folks in Baton Rouge all these years later.
Since then, LSU’s annual SEC records have been 6-2, 5-4, 4-4 and 4-3 (so far this season). There’s no disputing LSU has looked sloppy and pitiful in recent weeks. Three weeks removed from being No. 2 in the College Football Playoff Rankings, LSU has dropped three straight games by double digits for the first time since 1966 and may finish unranked for the second straight year.
So yes, there are problems in Baton Rouge. You’ll get no argument from me that Miles’ biggest failure has been his program’s inability to develop quarterbacks. If LSU had even a caretaker quarterback, it might have one or two more national championships.
Then there’s this: LSU has the most active players in the NFL right now -- even more than Alabama -- yet it’s not winning at the Crimson Tide’s rate. (Newsflash: Who is?) Miami is No. 2 in active NFL players produced and USC is No. 3. Hmmm. See a pattern in this year’s coaching market?
Still, unless I’m missing something, it’s like LSU passed over the stage of pressing Miles to reinvent himself and went straight to “Pay the man $15 million to be gone.” Bob Stoops reinvented himself last year and Oklahoma may make the playoff in 2015. Mark Richt tried it, albeit unsuccessfully, with his Alabama-like hires. Even Saban adapted by hiring Lane Kiffin and using more tempo and passing last season to reach the playoff.
Serious Les Fatigue set in with some people at LSU a while ago. Media accounts out of Louisiana have documented tension between Miles and LSU athletic director Joe Alleva for years.
Alleva refused to give defensive coordinator John Chavis $300,000 to keep him last year, according to Gannett Louisiana. So LSU has a worse coordinator this year in Kevin Steele and an ongoing lawsuit with Chavis over whether he breached his contract by leaving for Texas A&M and owes LSU $400,000.
Perhaps history will judge Alleva as looking wise by pulling the trigger on Miles sooner rather than later. Then again, Alleva has never hired a football coach at LSU. At Duke, he hired Carl Franks (7-45) and Ted Roof (6-45) before getting David Cutcliffe right, though not as his first choice.
But even if you agree with getting rid of Miles, Alleva deserves blame for agreeing to tie such a huge buyout to Miles’ contract in 2013. Fifteen million dollars is nothing to sneeze at. It’s roughly equivalent to paying Fisher for three years at his current Florida State rate.
If LSU can land Fisher, the Miles fiasco may ultimately prove to be worth how messy this has become for a coach who brought so much acclaim to the university. Otherwise, good luck and God speed, LSU.
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